


The Penalty Box

by InLust



Series: opposite and nothing alike [2]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/F, High School AU, Modern AU, Pre-Friendship, Pre-Relationship, angie not giving a shit, friendships, locked in the janitors closet, peggy being a perfect student, penalty box, set in same universe as The Best Four Years, their friends are secretly setting them up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-07
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-05 10:39:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5372321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InLust/pseuds/InLust
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peggy is on student council, taking AP courses, applying to college, and worries about her younger cousin all the time. Her friends think that someone needs to help her destress but really, they just wanna lock her in the janitor's closet so she misses class. Too bad there's someone else in the closet with her.</p><p>The high school AU no one asked for but I wrote it anyways</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Penalty Box

**Author's Note:**

> Day 6 of my Holiday Writing Dash at nocteverbascio.tumblr

The mornings were generally not a solemn affair for Peggy. After all, the halls were constantly teeming with hormone raging teenagers. There was always constant energy in the school that she quite enjoyed compared to her time in boarding school.

She took a deep calming breath and tried to count backwards from ten, while standing face in her locker. It was strange how easily you could just look in your locker and just not worry about things outside of it.

_It’s alright. Jack is a useless git. You’ve always known this._

As much as she wants to forget the object of her frustration, Peggy can’t seem to shake it. Peggy’s learned to swallow her pride in sight of boys.  _Boys were stupid,_  she knew that. However, there was only so much stupidity one could take.

On top of that, it seemed that Peggy’s circle of  _intrigue_ has grown immensely since the budget meeting at the beginning of the school year. People from the theatre club were constantly asking when she was free and if she was available to come to meetings and rehearsals to show her the valuable work that they contribute to the school. Then her friends, the boys on the football team aka Marvel High’s  _Commandos_ aka  _Howling Commandos_  (as they like to call themselves) aka  _Whooping Commandos_  (as Peggy likes to call them) have been incessantly asking Peggy “what her type was” and insisting that she “loosen up.”

First off _: rude._

Second:  _they had no right to pry into her private life._

Third:  _I am far too busy for anything unrelated to school at the moment._

 _Ah, school related issues._  Peggy  _usually_ had good mornings. She could deal with weekly student council meetings before homeroom with minimal snide remarks at their commander in chief and his fuck boy of a VP.  _Not today though_ , she had stayed up too late studying for her AP Government exam and missed her workout.

Through all the studying she’s done, she still can’t shake that it wasn’t enough. Maybe it was because of the college application deadlines that are fast approaching.

And what was this rumor about her cousin needing a tutor? And said tutor being a  _rough_ girl? She needs to sit down and have a conversation with her tutor,  _just in case._

“Peggy!” Tim greets brightly as he saunters over to her. Of course the rest of his squad are with him as well.

“Boys,” Peggy greets, trying to hide her exhaustion. She gathers the books she needs for her class and shoves it into her backpack before shutting her locker quickly. “How are all of you today then?”

They all sort of look at each other and mutter varying answers. Of course, Tim answers for them in a simple, “We’re good. But we are actually here about  _you_.”

Peggy is taken aback. “About  _me_?” she asks with her eyebrows raised.

Tim throws his arm around her shoulder and answers, “You see, Peg, we’re  _worried_ about you.” He starts walking and the rest of the boys fall in step.

“Not that we are being _busy bodies_ ,” Gabe throws in to cover their behinds.

“Absolutely not,  _busy body-ing_!” Tim insists. “You see. We’ve been noticing  _things_ lately about you.”

“I am surprised you notice  _anything_ at all,” Peggy playfully jabs to lighten her mood.

“Oh you wound us,” Morita feigns hurt as he clasps her hand briefly. “But we know  _why_ you’re doing that.”

“Oh really?” Peggy throws back, crossing her arms.

“You look so  _tense_ all the time,” Tim says as he carefully starts to massage the muscles in her shoulders.

“Yeah, it ain’t good for ya,” Gabe adds. “Your body is just one tight muscle, Peggy.”

Peggy shoots daggers with her eyes. “You best watch your mouth, Jones.” He backs off with his hands up in surrender.

“Listen, he isn’t wrong.” The leader of the pack still continues to speak and Peggy is beginning to wonder if there is a point to this conversation at all. “We are concerned about you. We know you’ve been stressing about a lot of things and have all this stuff on your place. We’d offer to take some of it off--”

“But you know I don’t trust anyone’s capabilities beside  _my own_ ,” Peggy jabs  _politely_ this time.

The boys all grumble in agreement. At least they’re all thick skinned.

Tim continues, “The offer still stands to let your buddies take a load off of you.”

Peggy purses her lips, “How about  _you_ talk to Jemma’s  _tutor_ for me?”

The boys all look at each other before some whispers,  _Skye_ , and someone else gasps. Tim laughs nervously and pats Peggy on the shoulder. “Maybe that’s a better suited job for  _you_. You can probably do a good job with that conversation. After all, we don’t really know the full scope of things. But we do love your cousin very much, just wouldn’t wanna get tangled up--”

“I get it,” Peggy cuts off. All of the boys seem to breathe easily now. “ _Now_ continue with your story because I am starting to lose my patience with the lack of a point.”

“We think that you could really use someone to rely on,” Tim suggests as they suddenly take a turn. “Someone you can talk to. Someone you can converse with about I don’t know-- _girl things_.”

“ _Girl_ things?”

“Or maybe, if you are interested in something a little more  _recreational_ …”

“ _Recreational_?”

Jacques speaks up with a leering smirk on his face. “It’s how you say,  _sexually frustrated?_ ” he offers.

Peggy gasps and nearly clocks him on the spot before she feels three of the boys holding her back. “I am not!” she yells angrily. “For you to think  _that_! How  _lewd_ and  _unbecoming_ of you boys!”

“She’s doing that, English mom thing again, Tim,” Gabe states, which adds fuel to the fire.

“You boys are disgusting!” Peggy feels the adrenaline rush through her veins. To think, her friends think she is  _sexually frustrated._ What? Is there a stick up her arse or something? She’s got a lot of work to focus on. She doesn’t have time for this.

“Peggy!  _Peggy_! Calm down! We are just worried you aren’t having the right companionship,” Tim continues his argument as he picks her up on his own, letting her legs kick at the boys around them. The others back off feeling like Peggy is secure in Tim’s grasp. “We just think maybe you should take some sort of  _break_. Skip class. Chill out.”

Peggy fights hard against Tim. “I do  _not_ need that,” she seethes. “You will let me down Tim, now.”

“Alright, well this is for your benefit, Peg,” Tim says as he steps forward. He looks at the boys. “Open the door.”

“What’re you boys doing?” Peggy shoots with exasperation. “I don’t have time for this.”

“Oh you will,” Tim mutters as he walks her over to the door marked Janitor’s closet. “You’re not going to class, Peggy. You’re going to stay here and just skip class.”

“This could be considered  _abduction_ , Dum Dum!” Peggy throws at him.

“You’re not leaving the premises,” he argues back.

“It is  _against my will_!”

“Relax,” Tim says with finality before he drops her in the closet and escapes.

Peggy chases after him before the door is firmly shut on her face. She grabs the doorknob to open the door but it’s locked. She doesn’t even know how they manage to do that. She tries to unlock it from the inside but no avail.

She punches the door and recoils quickly. “ _Ah! Bugger_.”

“You know, I am pretty sure they’re not going to let us out.”

The new voice startles her and she turns around stepping backwards slamming into the broomstick.

“Give me a warning!” Peggy snaps. Her heart rate with far too high this early in the morning. She looks at the owner of the voice, who is now giggling at her.

It’s the girl from the student council meeting. Angie Martinelli. She is standing before Peggy in a cute flowery dress with converse and her hair is falling into short curls that makes her look like she’s from the 50s.

Generally, it’d be a tacky look, but for Angie it seemed to work.

Angie smiles and walks over to hold her hand out for Peggy to grab.

“So what landed you in the  _penalty box_?” Angie asks playfully as she hauls the English girl to stand.

Peggy looks around the janitor’s closet. Needless to say, it’s quite small and the air circulation is good considering the sink for the mop sits on the ground. If it wasn’t aired, they’re surely die of some fungus.

“ _Penalty box_?” Peggy asks as she tries to straighten up her oxford. She’s already feeling the heat and starts to unbutton her cuff to roll up her forearms.

“Yeah, you know, in  _hockey_ , when one of the players gets into a fight, they get a penalty and have to stay in the box?” Angie asks as she steps back to pull out a chair from beside a shelf of toilet paper. She hands it to Peggy before sitting down before pulling out another one.

“I’m not familiar with hockey to be honest,” the treasurer murmurs as she sits down on the chair. She hopes it’s not going to leave a stain on her jeans. “Although my friends seem to think that locking me in here so I don’t make it to class will help me  _destress_.”

“Ohh,” Angie coos playfully. “Did you punch someone?”

“No!” Peggy protests, cheeks turning red. She missed Jacques just by a hair. “They’re crazy. My friends are  _mad_.”

The theatre girl just seems to giggle at this before Peggy’s curiosity gets the best of her.

“Is there are reason why you’re in the penalty box?”

Angie laughs in response. “To be honest, not this time.”

“Not  _this_ time?”

This time the girl looks sheepishly at Peggy and it’s cute. “ _Usually_ , I am yelling at someone for not having their lines memorized like they were supposed to. We do a fall production every year and somehow, slutty Sarah never seems to be off book soon enough.”

“ _Slutty_ Sarah?” Peggy asks dubiously, trying not to intrude.

Angie makes a face of distaste. “Her words, not mine. Not like I care what she does outside of rehearsal as long as she makes it on time and knows her cue.”

“Ah...well, if you aren’t in the penalty box because of a penalty, why are you here?”

Angie shrugs. “Beats me,” she pushes her curls behind her ears and Peggy tries not to let her eyes fall on her neck. “Some of the girls led me here saying I’ve been stressed and not dealing well. The usual.”

This is something Peggy can sympathize with. “Our friends sure are busy bodies.”

“Yeah they are. Who are they to tell us we need to destress?” Angie shakes her fist dramatically at the door. “ _Why I oughta_ \--”

Peggy giggles at Angie this time. “There’s no chance you know how to get out of here do you?” she asks.

Angie smiles all knowing. “Don’t worry, janitor stops by here right after the bell rings for first period.”

“After homeroom?!” Peggy feels frustrated already. She isn’t in the mood to explain the buffoonery her friends got her into to her teachers.

“ _Gee_ , Peg, maybe you  _do_ need to stay in the penalty box,” Angie jokes as she picks at her nails.

Peggy glares. It’s strange seeing this girl who doesn’t have a care in the world. “I’m sorry, I just care about my classwork.”

“Oh, I understand,” the girl brushes off easily. She leans forward in her seat with her elbows on her knees, eying Peggy with a twinkle in her eyes. “Don’t you think that maybe your friends could be a  _little_ right? You do seem awfully  _tense_ for someone who is missing homeroom.”

Peggy scoffs as she leans back in her chair. Her legs fall apart and she can hear in the back of her mind to “sit like a lady” but right now she doesn’t care. She crossed her arms. “You know nothing about me.”

Angie shrugs at Peggy’s reaction. She brushes it off her shoulders, which Peggy appreciates. “Well, I guess while we are in here, we might as well get to know each other,” she suggests without any promise. “After all, if anyone knows how to not go crazy in the penalty box, it’s  _me_.”

As much as Peggy hates her friends in that moment, at least Angie isn’t forcing her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. Despite their serendipitous moment of being locked in the penalty box, Angie is a breath of fresh air. It’s nice having someone to talk to that doesn’t grate her nerves or raises her blood pressure.

**Author's Note:**

> i had a much longer idea for this fic and i may revisit it so that it can turn into a multichapter fic honestly ive been sitting on this idea for awhile


End file.
